The Arms of the Angel
by Matsu Hamisura
Summary: After a painful return to Suna, Gaara finds himself in the hospital and in the care of an oddly friendly nurse. Crappy summary better story! GaaraxOC CHAPTER 2 IS UP! YAY!
1. Return

_Alright…This is my first Naruto fan-fic. It is an OC story, so if you don't like those kinds of stories, please leave. Also, most of this story will be done in Gaara POV; I will inform you if it isn't. One more thing, if my OC goes anywhere close to Mary Sue land, please tell me, and then slap me in the face. Thank you._

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, just my OC. **_

**CHAPTER 1: RETURN**

A sort of dread hung over me as my siblings carried me back to my home. Our failure would surely be punished upon our return.

It was mostly my fault that we were in this predicament. If I didn't start my transformation so soon…

"I'm…sorry…"

I muttered to my siblings, who seemed to be surprised by this sudden apology.

Temari looked at me with sad eyes.

"It's okay Gaara."

The trees that bordered Konoha were beginning to thin, leaving nothing but sand before us. The barren wasteland was usually calming to me, but now it held the promise of being beaten within an inch of my life.

As the sun set over the desert, my siblings drifted off into an unpleasant sleep. They knew what awaited them upon return. They also knew that running wasn't an option. The other shinobi of our village would find us soon enough. It was better to face our punishment boldly than run like cowards.

My siblings' need for rest left me alone with my thoughts and Shukaku.

"_This punishment won't be easy…"_

I thought with a slight flinch.

"_**The room is never an easy punishment, boy."**_

I shuddered again, thinking of the room that the demon mentioned. My father had the room built specifically for punishing me. No windows, metal doors, concrete floors and walls. No way for my sand to get in. They could easily kill me in that room, but they never did. They just let me suffer for days.

Another shudder left me.

"_**This is not the time for fear, boy, you brought this upon yourself."**_

"_That Uchiha boy left me no choice."_

"_**You had other choices. You just panicked."**_

Shukaku laughed at my weakness. His bellows shaking me to the core, making me hold my head until he had finished. He left me in silence after that. This struck me as odd. Maybe the demon feared this punishment as much as I did. I smirked at the though. I couldn't think of such a powerful being trembling at the thought of a desolate room.

As the sun peeked over the horizon, Temari and Kankuro awoke. They were defiantly on edge. Not wanting to go back, but knowing running was impossible must worry them.

As we continued our walk to Suna, no words were exchanged between Temari and Kankuro. The two normally talk every so often on the trip back from a mission, but now there was nothing to say.

Suna soon appeared on the horizon and the feeling of dread mounted. I could feel Shukaku squirm inside of me as if trying to find a way out of my body and to freedom.

As we entered the village, the streets went suddenly quiet. The village seemed to know of our failure, because some of them were looking at me with looks of contentment. They knew that I was going to die and leave them in peace for the rest of their pathetic lives. I wanted to kill those people, but my punishment still weighed heavy on my mind.

As we approached our home, I could sense people inside waiting for us. My muscles tensed as we approached the door.

Before Temari had the chance to touch the doorknob, three men jumped through the doorway at us. Shukaku lurched within me, ready to kill, but I restrained him.

One of the men bound my wrists and threw my gourd into the dirt. The other two had bound my siblings. Temari looked at me with an unlimited amount of fear in her eyes, she must've thought that I was going to try and save them. I shook my head 'no' and Temari's head lolled down to her feet. The fear was gone from her eyes now and had been replaced with a look of anguish and defeat. She knew as well as I that this might be the last time we see our home.

The three men paraded us down the streets of Suna like trophies of victory.

The people seemed happy to see me helpless.

They were ready for me to die.

The men dragged us into a building that the villagers called 'The Building of Death'. The name suited it, considering all the souls that had met their end within its walls.

The men shoved us into three seats in a room and shut the door. The room had no windows, so darkness engulfed the three of us as the door slammed shut.

I wasn't sure, but I thought I heard the soft sound of my sister crying. Death was imamate and she wasn't ready for it. Not yet at least.

_Sorry about the shortness of this first chapter, I will try to make the next one longer if you review. So please, if you want to read what happens next, review! _

_Matsu Hamisura_


	2. Help

_Hello again, all. I am sooooooooooooooo sorry for the wait, but I just kept stalling. (I blame my writers block vampire) But anyway, I think I'll introduce the OC character in this chapter._

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, all I own in merchandise. **_

**CHAPTER 2: HELP**

Temari's cries soon stopped and a new kind of silence fell over me and my siblings. It was the silence that we had grown accustomed to in our journey here….

It was worse.

The utter darkness, the desolation, it weighed on every nerve.

Knowing that death was coming for any of us didn't help matters either.

Suddenly, the weight of the silence was lifted by my sister's voice.

"Gaara…." Her voice sounded weak and tired.

"I probably won't get another chance to say this, so…I'm sorry, little brother."

A shocked expression was probably on my face, but no one could see me, so they couldn't tell.

"For how I've treated you…Everything…"

"I'm sorry too."

Kankuro's voice broke in as well.

"There's nothing for you to be sorry about."

I manage to get the words out before the blinding light of the door opening disturbed us and blindfolds were placed over our faces.

"_**It's been nice knowing you, boy."**_

Shukaku almost laughed within me.

_-Spend all your time waiting for that second chance.-_

We were both right to suspect that the room would be my punishment. I could tell where I was by the cold feeling of concrete under my feet.

I was handcuffed to a wall, and then my blindfold was removed.

I took the time to look around at the people that came to watch me die.

The village elders, no surprise, looked smug as they watched me with judging eyes.

"Your punishment for failure,"

A man reading a scroll said in a monotonous voice.

"Is 100 whips by a cat o' nine tailed whip."

I flinched _"How suiting."_ I thought. _"Dying by something with nine tails…"_

A man now stood a few feet away from me, the whip in his hand.

The man counted every time he hit me with the whip.

"_One…two…three……ten………twenty."_

Every few moments, I'd scream out in pain. Earlier on in the day, I'd decided that I wouldn't grant the Elders the pleasure of hearing my pain, but it was too much to bear. The whips tore into the skin of the belly, arms, and sometimes my neck. I could smell my own blood by the time the man reached 50.

"_Ninety-eight…ninety-nine…one-hundred." _

The count stopped and I was unshackled. I instantly collapsed to the floor, writhing in pain, my own blood surrounding me.

I don't know how long I lay there, but eventually I heard someone cry my name.

"Gaara!"

I couldn't place the voice, it sounded so familiar. Someone picked me up, but my vision was blurry from loss of blood, so I couldn't tell who it was.

"We need to get him help, quick!"

The world went black then, no sound, no sight, no pain.

I was happy with the numbness of that time.

_-For the break that would make it okay-_

The first thing that I felt was something touching my face. It was wet, cold, and very annoying. I opened my eyes to see what had bothered my peaceful numbness.

A girl stood over me. I had never seen her before. She had long black hair, which she held back with a few bobby pins. Her eyes were a strange pale blue, like the sky just before the storm clouds move in. She was dressed in a usual nurse uniform, a white dress.

"Well, look who's awake."

The girl said a smile in her voice.

"What are you doing?" I asked, annoyed.

"Oh, I'm sorry if I disturbed you." She said. "I'm just cleaning out the smaller cuts on your face."

The girl finished and sat down in a chair on the far side of the room, waiting to see if anything else needed to be done. She must've noticed the odd look I was giving her.

"Oh, I should've introduced myself." She said, laughing at her own forgetfulness. "My name's Rae Lyn." She said.

I acted as if I didn't acknowledge her, and fell back into the black peacefulness again.

_That's all I can think of for now. Again, sorry for the wait. Well, Happy Holidays, everyone. Please review! -Hums Sweeney Todd songs until you review-_


	3. A note to fans

Fans! Don't think I have abandoned you! My inspiration just took a little cruise to the Bahamas for a while, is all. I am now re-writing many of my stories, starting with "Black Angel", my Death Note fic.

If you are not a fan of Death Note or that particular fiction, please be patient. I shall be making new versions of this story and others (excluding my Fruits Basket ones, my inspiration for that was probably killed on vacation) will be remade very soon, I promise you.

Thank you for bering with my slowness.

Much love, fans

Matsu 


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